An important consideration for the application of this type of system in a production setting is finding the optimum plant spacing to meet the needs of all component species. In the past, there has been debate regarding planting density and plant spacing when calculating LER for comparing monocultures with mixed cropping systems (Oyejola and Mead, 1982). Optimum plant densities in monoculture have been suggested for best achievable yields (Huxley and Maingu, 1978), and deviation from these planting densities will reduce the yield of the monocultures and thus bias LER toward the mixed plantings. However, in some instances when certain variables are being isolated it is appropriate to maintain similar densities across treatments (Mead and Willey, 1980).